One of the things I love about my country is that America is the place where religious affiliation is met with the butt of jokes rather than rifles. Europe has hundreds of years of history of Christians fighting Christians and our Founders wanted no part of that in their affairs of state hence Article 6 in the Constitution bans religious tests for holding office and the simple fact that We The People, rather than a Prince or Priest, Endowed by their - not "the" - creator, ...Ordained and Established this Constitution. I like having friends who are of a different faith than myself because here in America we get to be friends with whoever we want without the State telling us otherwise.
I worked with a guy named Shafquat until he transferred to Texas and we enjoyed each others company even though I am a Methodist and he is a Muslim (and boy could he drink!) because in America, we are allowed to.
Granted, with the religious freedom we enjoy in this country I have often run across many people that insist that Christianity is a fake and a sham after they claim to have read and studied the Bible and I do hear many fine upstanding Christians who will lie to your face about what the redemptive love of Christ is all about - usually trying to convince me that those bastard Jews will pay for killing Him but at least my government isn't here to establish Leviticus or Sharia or Flying Spaghetti Monster law but when I hear people insist we are a Christian Nation at War with Islam, I begin to feel like the people who attacked us on 9/11 are winning the hearts and minds of people who would throw out our history and become just like Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is a Monarchy led by a King who imposes Sharia law on it's people and doesn't want any other faiths represented in the country. They have been able to export a lot of their beliefs and doctrines through the money they make by selling the world their oil, lots and lots of oil, which is consumed by the United States of America; a country that for well over two hundred years has been guided by the democratic principles laid out in the Constitution and its several Amendments. Chief among the rights spelled out in our government is the freedom of religion. It says Congress can't establish any faith above or below another.
I got an email titled "GROUND ZERO MOSQUE from a chain of email addresses that said
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
It isn't weakness to allow the currently named Park51 to be built, it is our strength as a nation governed by laws enacted by our representatives in Congress and not religious precepts dictated by people who think they know better.
Like a Jewish Community Center or a YMCA, the formerly named Cordoba House is planned to contain a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, a September 11th memorial, and, yes, prayer space. (if an airport has a chapel, is the concourse holy ground?) That is what is being built in the Burlington Coat Factory building which, yes, got hit with wreckage from one of the planes that was crashed into the WTC buildings, but calling it Holy Ground seems to be a bit of a stretch when I think of the New York Dolls strip club and a sex toy shop 2 blocks away plus the liquor stores and a peep show place also around two blocks away. In addition to the over 100 Mosques in NYC there is a place 4 blocks away, this would be 2 blocks away from Ground Zero called Masjid Manhattan. Check it out at .masjidmanhattan.com.
In fact, when the buildings collapsed, the debris cloud from that terrible event covered a lot more than a couple block radius and contained the blood of Muslims and Christians, and dozens of other faiths but nobody is up in arms over the strip clubs or, for that matter, "money changers" proposed to occupy the Freedom Tower. Nobody cared that in WTC-2 there was a Muslim prayer room in it. For that matter, why has nobody objected to the multi-faith chapel where Muslim prayer, holiday celebrations and readings of the Koran have gone on for nearly a decade inside the Pentagon?
Not only that but why did Laura Ingraham who had interviewed the wife of the Inman responsible for the project think it was a pretty good idea? What happened?
15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabian Wahhabists who practice a form of Islam not unlike the Westboro Baptist Church practices of a form of Christianty. Saudi Arabia, an authoritarian petro-monarchy that actually is governed by the Wahhabi version of Sharia law and is known as one of the top global sponsors of terrorism is ruled by a King Abdullah. (Insisting on their government putting a Synagogue or a Mormon temple in Mecca would be just as silly as insisting the Lutherans recognize the Pope or Jews recognizing Christ or Baptists each other in the liqueur store...) His nephew is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talil, who is the largest stock holder outside the Murdoch family (Rupert became a citizen instead of a foreigner... damn "anchor corporations"...)in News Corp. Which, in addition to donating a million dollars to the Republican Governor's association, is the company that brings us FOX News and so much of the "coverage" of the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy that so many people are afraid of.
Speaking of Terrorism, it works when your results terrorize. It works when your opponent clenches in fear and reacts rather than acts. Terrorism's goal is to make you afraid, to make you hid under your bed and tremble at the unknown, to make you jump at the slightest sound or provocation, to make you forget who you are and what you stand for and surrender because of what might happen again. Well, let me tell you something you pissy little anus clenchers; I am not afraid to be an American! I am not afraid of what makes us different! We Stand United, you remember?
Further, I fully intend to enjoy all the rights and privileges extended to me by the Constitution and will continue to support those who wish to represent me who offer me hope over fear and action rather than reaction. I will continue to question the motives of those who say otherwise.
I'll close with this thought: One of the things the Islamists dislike more than Jews and Christians is those who they would deem as apostates, or those that have left the faith or now question the beliefs held by their leaders; someone who would say stuff like this guy:
If to be a Jew means to say with all one's heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.
If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.
And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different.
It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values."
this was Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, the guy trying to get Park51 built, in 2003 spoken at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl, the journalist murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan.
Sounds pretty damn American if you ask me.